[mikeabuilder]

Hi. I'm new to this site. I recently bought a "3040 4-axis mill". It's my first CNC mill. Ive spent the last two months in Corona lockdown tuning it up, adding limit switches, getting familiar with the Mach 3 SW, and finally cutting a part. Im happy with the resulting part (picture attached), but had a few things I'm looking for some help on.

The biggest issue I had was that in the middle of my finishing pass, the mill stopped moving, with no indication (that I could find in MAch3) of why. This had happened before on my first trial run. I stopped the spindle, returned the mill to coordinates 0,0,0 using manual gcodes, then edited the gcode file that was being run. I deleted all the steps that had been executed, loaded the remainder of the file in Mach 3, returned the spindle to the location it was in when it stopped, and started execution. It completed the rest of the job. Any idea why this should happen? I looked for Mach3 forum on this site, but found none.

My second question is about the control board in this mill. It appears to be the "latest" version. It has a direct USB connection, and ARM processor on the board, and all the stepper drivers are integrated into the board. I'm interested in learning more about this board. With an ARM processor, I assume it could run some CNC code directly, and not use Mach3 (which seems like it's a bit out of date). I don;t know the details of the board, but I found the same one on amazon: https://www.amazon.com/100Khz-Breako.../dp/B07RHPVHYW Are there forums on this site that get into this kind of stuff someone could guide me to?

Thanks- Mike

[awerby]

It sounds like you're using a demo version of Mach3, which stops after executing 500 lines of code. Chinese manufacturers almost never include a valid Mach3 license with their machines. When you pay for it, you'll get a license file that you load into the main Mach3 directory; then it will show the license name on the screen and not stop in the middle of a program.

[joeavaerage]

Hi,
the controller consumes numerical data called PVT (position/velocity over time) in 1ms slices.
Machs trajectory planner generates that data. If you elect to do away with Mach3 then you will have to provide
the coordinated PVT data. That would be a huge undertaking.

Mach4 is a more modern software solution but your USB motion control board does not have the right plugin, you would
need another motion controller like an Ethernet SmoothStepper.

Craig

[Genesisjohn]

I’ve purchased a 3040 CNCEST 4 axis cnc mill from eBay and simply cannot get the blue control unit to communicate with my computer. It is connected by USB but shows no sign of life on installing Mach 3 and jogging the motors. Is anyone able to help me?